Tim Peake and space station crew mates return to Earth

The European Space Agency’s Venus Express spacecraft has run out of fuel and will burn up in the atmosphere of Venus in January after a successful eight-year mission.

NASA astronaut Terry Virts captured this stunning image of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Scandinavia on a moonlit night beneath an amazing curtain of aurora.

With the help of software that mimics a human brain, ESA’s Gaia satellite spotted six stars zipping at high speed from the centre of our galaxy to its outskirts. This could provide key information about some of the most obscure regions of the Milky Way.